Breastfeeding: An Interview with Dr Oyebanji Part 2

By
Healthfacts.ng
-

Breastfeeding is one of the most effective ways to ensure a child’s health and survival. On our previous post, we discussed some of the important questions surrounding breastfeeding. Today, with the help of Dr Oyebanji, we answer some of the other important questions many mothers and families have about breastfeeding.

Healthfacts: What type of diet should a mother be on when breastfeeding to help her supply of breastmilk?

Dr Oyebanji: A breastfeeding mother should be on a balanced diet that has protein, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals. All African diet are rich when properly combined to meet up the nutritional demand of a breastfeeding mother. When a mother takes rice, it can be combined with egg, fish, meat and vegetables. It should also be ensured that she takes fruit and water regularly.

Groundnuts, melon, sesame seeds. milk and soya milk are food items that have been found by experts to help with milk secretion.

How long should breastfeeding be for?

The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that a child should be exclusively breast fed for the first six months of life. It also recommends that breastfeeding should be continued till a child is two years of age. From six months, complementary food can be added to a child’s diet until the child is two years.

For how long can breastmilk be stored after expressing?

Breastmilk can be stored even without refrigeration. It can be stored in a plastic container and left without any fear of contamination for a period of 6 to 24 hours. All that is needed to be done is to keep it in another big bowl containing water after expressing it into a container. It can then be covered with a plastic cover. Whenever the child needs to feed, the breast milk can be taken and warmed to normal body temperature.

Breastmilk can stay in the refrigerator when there’s uninterrupted power supply for 5 to 7 days. In freezers, it can stay up to 6 weeks if appropriately stored in zip lock bags with good hygiene and cleanliness maintained.

Is it advisable to use breast pumps?

Breast pumps are devices that help in expressing breast milk with the aid of machines which can be electrical or manual. Breast pumps are advisable because they help the mother to express and keep breastmilk. This can make her breast milk available even when she’s not around. It also helps the process of pumping breast milk to be faster rather than expressing it with hands.

Can a mother take medications while breastfeeding?

A mother can take medications while breastfeeding. However, the medications have to be prescribed by a qualified medical doctor. A qualified doctor will know the drugs that are safe in a breastfeeding mother and won’t prescribe what is harmful to a baby.

Can a woman breastfeed if she has HIV or any other sexually transmitted disease?

In the event that a woman has HIV, it has been shown that exclusive breastfeeding can still be practiced. This is in fact being promoted by WHO especially in developing countries. Breastmilk contains antibodies that can protect the lining of the intestine of the baby from invasion from bacteria or viruses. Hence, with the practice of exclusive breastfeeding, even if HIV is present in the woman’s breastmilk, it would not be able to penetrate into the child.

There are also other measures that can be taken. This involves the woman being started on antiretroviral drugs during pregnancy. With the adherence to the drugs, the chance of transmitting the virus to the child becomes very low. The child is also commenced on post exposure prophylactic drug once born making the transmission level very insignificant. Exclusive breastfeeding especially in low-income countries is more advisable to such mothers. It ensures that the child is even better protected from risk of infections.

Can breastfeeding be contraindcated?

Yes. In some mothers, it is not advisable to breastfeed. This include mothers that have active tuberculosis infection, that is, they have not yet commenced medications. Also, in cases of active syphilis, women that are on anticancer drugs (as this can be secreted into the breastmilk), women that are addicted and are not yet weaned off alcohol consumption, women that are on recreational drugs such as cocaine, heroin and cannabis.

This is however not set in stone as the situation can still be managed in some cases. For instance, for women that have tuberculosis, they can commence treatment immediately and resume breastfeeding within 2 weeks of treatment. For women that consume alcohol, with counseling and behavioral changes, if they can cease the use of these drugs, breastfeeding can be commenced afterwards.

Thank you so much Dr Oyebanji for these answers!

You can drop more questions in the comment section that have not yet been answered. We will ensure to provide you with answers.

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

35 COMMENTS

  1. An outstanding share! I’ve just forwarded this onto a coworker
    who had been doing a little homework on this. And he in fact ordered me lunch
    due to the fact that I stumbled upon it for him… lol.
    So let me reword this…. Thanks for the meal!! But yeah, thanks for spending the time
    to talk about this issue here on your web site.

  3. Hello! I’m at work surfing around your blog
    from my new iphone 4! Just wanted to say I love reading your
    blog and look forward to all your posts! Keep up the
    fantastic work!

  4. Asking questions are genuinely pleasant thing if you are not understanding anything
    entirely, however this article presents pleasant understanding even.

  5. I take pleasure in, lead to I discovered exactly what I used to be looking
    for. You’ve ended my four day long hunt! God Bless you man. Have a
    great day. Bye

  6. Pretty section of content. I just stumbled upon your website and in accession capital to assert that I get actually enjoyed account your blog
    posts. Any way I will be subscribing to your feeds and even I achievement you
    access consistently quickly.

  12. Hi there, I do believe your site could possibly be having browser compatibility issues.
    When I take a look at your site in Safari,
    it looks fine but when opening in Internet Explorer, it
    has some overlapping issues. I just wanted to provide you with a
    quick heads up! Aside from that, great blog!

  13. Hello there! This blog post couldn’t be written much better!
    Going through this article reminds me of my
    previous roommate! He constantly kept preaching about this.

    I’ll forward this information to him. Fairly certain he will have a very good read.
    Thank you for sharing!

  22. карты таро райдера уэйта
    на русском языке английский алфавит для
    начинающих детей, задания
    на алфавит английский для малышей гадание во сколько
    лет выйду замуж онлайн
    поделки и обереги из веника молитва во время распространения вредоносного поветрие что
    моя

  29. ұлпан ерекшелігі, ұлпан романындағы
    ұлпан бейнесін қазіргі кездегі
    басшылық кун мен ай каракесек, ай мен тун каракесек скачать ауылшаруашылығындағы өзгерістер,
    соғыстан кейінгі ауыл шаруашылығы жақсы жақтары 1920-30 жылдардағы сауатсыздықты жою, сауатсыздық жою қоғамы ұйымдастырылды

  32. суш ниш фмн астана, суш ниш фмн алматы су
    қауіпсіздігі хаттама, ата аналар жиналысының хаттамасы 3 сынып айфон 15: дата выхода, цена, айфон 14 про макс цена в казахстане қазақстан қай топқа
    кіреді, қазақстан дамуы эссе

  33. назовите главную цель гражданского движения азат,
    азат партия рауза есімінің мағынасы,
    шахназ есімінің мағынасы даму психологиясының зерттеу объектісі, жас ерекшелік психологиясы тест
    жауаптарымен интернет-аптека уральск, талап аптека уральск

  34. кітапты насихаттау, кітап оқуға
    мотивация өз туралы мақал мәтелдер, қарым қатынас туралы мақал мәтелдер жемістердің дәрумендері,
    дәрумендер пайдасы эссе проблема чистой воды в казахстане, нехватка воды в казахстане в какой области

LEAVE A REPLY